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I have now reviewed the case paperwork for the above case where I have been asked for further and better particulars of the situation with the final hearing and had a meeting with the grandparents. There is no judgment for the case. I have read the transcript of the hearing. This confirms that the hearing lasted of the order of 10 minutes as what was treated as a consent hearing. The grandmother was in the court building, but not in the hearing. The grandfather was in part of the court hearing, but because of hearing difficulties could not really hear what was going on.

The judge was told that the grandparents consented both to a care order and to the threshold documents. The grandparents are both adamant that they did not consent to the care order or that the facts of the the threshold warranted removing their grandchild. The nub of the case was the agreed fact that the grandfather in order to keep their granddaughter safe and stop her getting up to cook during the night, loc…

Statement by John
Hemming
I am pleased that the
Police have now made it clear that there has been a concerted effort
to promote false criminal allegations against me and that the
allegations had no substance whatsoever.
I would like to thank
Emily Cox, my children, Ayaz Iqbal (my Solicitor), my local lib dem
team and many others who supported me through this dreadful
experience. There are many worse things that happen to people, but
this was a really bad experience.
It is bad enough to
have false allegations made about yourself to the police, but to have
a concerted campaign involving your political opponents and many
others in public creates an environment in which it is reasonable to
be concerned about ill founded vigilante attacks on your family and
yourself. Luckily there was a more substantial lobby to the contrary
as well, which included many people who were themselves real
survivors of abuse, which has helped.
I am normally someone
who helps other people fight injustice. …

I have always wanted to put together some figures to see what has been happening to total government expenditure. It was clear at the start of the coalition government that what started as a government which was really quite tight as to finance developed into a government with some financial flexibility. At the time I knew that was because the interest rates on government debt were coming down which freed up money to be spent.

I have spent a little time getting at the statistics from the ONS to try to see what actually has happened actually since 1998. In the chart below I have taken the ONS figures for spending in the calendar year. That is because the inflation figures (RPI/CPI) are also calendar year figures. In the end a similar pattern would arise with financial year figures. What I have taken is the current spending excluding banks and calculated that in 1987 Equivalent Pounds sterling. When copying the image from my source data I have left the source figures both for c…

One thing I used to do when I was the Member of Parliament for Yardley was to call together meetings of all of the religious organisations in Yardley as a Yardley multi-faith group. In many ways it is the creation of informal links between people that makes communication easier even if there is no formal decision making power.

Obviously this is something I would intend to do again if the people of Yardley ask me to take on the responsibility of representing them in parliament.

It highlights the sort of thing that politicians can do which arises from a leadership role within communities rather than any constitutional position.

I have already written in an earlier blog post about the principles of resolving conflict. It can be summarised as "murdering innocents is wrong".

A number of local mosques have issued statements following the atrocity in Manchester and I think it is worth quoting from parts of them.

Candidates in elections tend to find themselves very busy with lots of things to do. It is, therefore, necessary to prioritise things to ensure that the important things are dealt with.

To me the issue of homelessness and rough sleeping is an important issue. Therefore, when Birmingham's Faith Leaders group contacted me to ask me what I would propose and whether I would work with them to make things better I was pleased to respond with my views and indicate that I would work with them after the election.

The Faith Leaders Group (Bishops and other religious leaders in Birmingham) have now sent out their report.

Sadly, according to their report, I was the only candidate for Yardley to respond. The group in their report said:

"Particularly
disappointing was the lack of response from some of those candidates
seeking re-election as MP for their respective constituencies."
It is worth looking at the priorities of my opponent.
Interestingly today she has decided to be at th…

Conservative
manifesto plans will mean the average household in Birmingham could
be forced to pay 39.5% of the value of their homes for social
care after they die, it has been revealed.

The manifesto
plans, which would mean that people would be forced to hand over
assets worth over £100,000 to pay for social care at home, would
have a particularly damaging impact on sufferers of dementia, who
have complicated long-term health needs.

The Liberal Democrats
have hit out at the plans and are calling for a cap of £72,000 to
protect people from crippling care costs.

John Hemming,
Liberal Democrat candidate for Yardley said:

“Many elderly people currently face the
cruel situation of having to sell their home when they die to fund
residential care home costs. Now the frail and elderly
receiving care in their own home will face a ‘Personal Death Tax’
charged against their home. And the more help you need, the more
the Conservatives will take when you die.

The Liberal Democrats have slammed the Conservative proposed "dementia
tax," as official figures have revealed the number of people diagnosed
with dementia reached a record high of over 442,000 last month.

NHS digital statistics show that in April 2017, the number of patients
recorded by GPs as having dementia was 442,000, more than double the
220,000 cases recorded 10 years ago.

Older people with dementia often need care in their own homes for many
years, meaning they would be hit with crippling costs to pay for their
own care under Conservative proposals.

Over 134,000 patients with dementia were below the age of 79, while 307,000 were 80 or older.

Liberal Democrat Shadow Health Secretary Norman Lamb commented:

"These figures reveal the impact the Conservative dementia tax will have on thousands of vulnerable people across the country.

"Frail and elderly people receiving care in their own home will now face
a ‘Personal Death Tax’ charged against their home. …

The Labour Candidate has recently claimed that John Hemming was campaigning for unilateral nuclear disarmament at the 2015 General Election. This has been done on twitter and this is what she has said:

She also seems to be confused between multilateral disarmament and unilateral disarmament.

The Lib Dem position in 2015 and now was one of keeping nuclear weapons, but having fewer of them. In a world with rogue nations such as North Korea we cannot throw away the nukes as Jeremy Corbyn would do. It was recently confirmed that even though many Labour MPs wish to keep the nuclear weapons, Jeremy Corbyn might still scrap them as PM.

John Hemming's view has been one wishing to see multilateral nuclear disarmament (where everyone in the world gives up having nuclear weapons), but of course with North Korea doing what they are doing this is not possible now and is unlikely to be possible for many years. He has not supported unilateral nuclear disarmament (where the UK throws away the…

This is a link to a debate in 2007. At that debate I asked a question of the minister:

John Hemming (Birmingham, Yardley) (LD): As an ex-cub scout, venture scout and assistant scout leader, I welcome the recognition of the importance of scouting in its centenary year and hope that funding follows. The Minister will be aware that I am concerned that children are inappropriately put into care and that research demonstrates that 70 per cent. of children return to their parents when they escape from the control of the state at the age of 16. I am particularly concerned about deaths of children in care, particularly one that occurred in the Trafford local authority area earlier this year. We must ask why arbitrary bureaucratic rules prevent children in care from making toast for each other but do not allow people to prevent them from acting as youth prostitutes. Will she look into the treatment of children in care, including the activities they are allowed to be involved in? Beverley Hughes:…

Labour supporters have asked for some of the evidence of the various comments by Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell. Hence this page has been written to give details:
Speech in which John McDonnell says he is a Marxist:

7,181 3-4 year-olds in Birmingham would benefit
from Liberal Democrat plans to triple funding for the early years
pupil premium, with gives extra cash to nurseries, preschools and
school receptions when they take on children from disadvantaged
backgrounds.

The cash would triple the funding to £1,000 per
pupil per year - up from £302 in 2015-16.

This
will increase the allocation for Birmingham from around £2,068,440
to £6,205,320, and will pay for every disadvantaged child who
benefits to receive 570 hours of state-funded early education.

It
forms part of a series of policies the Liberal Democrats are
announcing ahead of launching their manifesto, with a focus on giving
children and young people a brighter future.

These include:
Helping people
buy their first home for the same cost as renting, with a new model
of ‘Rent to Own’ homes Restoring
housing benefit for young people Creating a
discounted bus pass for 16-21 year olds, giving a 66% discount As
well as: Investing almost
£7bn in …

Liberal
Democrats have announced they would boost investment in police forces
by £300m a year. This is in stark contrast to the Conservatives who have
overseen devastating cuts to community policing. Theresa May as Home
Secretary and now Prime Minister has cut policing budgets by over £2bn,
eroding the very fabric of community policing.

Under the Liberal Democrats the West Midlands would see a funding
increase of £16,220,000 a year. This could be used to restore a visible
policing presence in the community and ensure the police have the
training and tools to deal with the changing nature of crime.

Liberal Democrat John Hemming commented:“This
investment in our police is absolutely vital. Under Theresa May – first
as Home Secretary and now as Prime Minister, our police have had to
deal with severe cuts. These are now cutting into the bone.“Our police work tirelessly to keep us safe and this Government has completely betrayed them.“Only
the Liberal Democrats have a credible pl…

Liberal
Democrats have announced they would end years of pay restraint for
nurses, teachers and police by lifting the 1% cap on public sector pay
and up-rating wages in line with inflation. The plans would lead to an
estimated pay rise of £780 for the average public sector worker by 2021.

In contrast, the Conservative's public sector pay cap combined with
rising inflation since the Brexit vote will mean that by 2021 a new
nurse will be £530 a year worse off, a primary school teacher £550 and
an army sergeant £830.

Liberal Democrat Shadow Chancellor Vince Cable commented:

“Public sector workers are facing a double blow at the hands of this
Conservative government, with years of pitiful increases to pay combined
with a Brexit squeeze caused by soaring inflation.

“Our NHS and schools are already struggling to recruit the staff they need.

"Living standards are falling, prices are rising and nurses are going to food banks – but Theresa May doesn’t care.

Speaking at the Royal College of Nursing
Congress, the Leader of the Liberal Democrats, Tim Farron, has
confirmed that the Party would reinstate student bursaries, which
benefit nursing, midwifery and allied health students, with immediate
effect.

In 2015, the Conservative Government announced they would be scrapping bursaries for nursing students from August 2017.

UCAS figures show that the number of applications for nursing courses
due to start this year were approximately 10,000 lower – down by nearly a
quarter – compared to the same point last year. The Liberal Democrats
argue that this short-sighted cut will compound the existing shortage of
nurses in the NHS, threatening the quality of patient care.

Liberal Democrat Leader Tim Farron said:

“The Government’s decision to abandon bursaries for nursing students was clearly wrong.

"The evidence has shown a drastic fall in the number of people applying
to study nursing following this dangerously short-sighted cut.

The
Liberal Democrats would give a “start-up allowance’ to help budding
entrepreneurs with living costs in the first six months of setting up
their business.

The party is making a bold pitch to be the party of business with Tim
Farron the only major party leader committed to Britain’s membership of
the single market. Tim will launch the party’s business policy at the
Liberal Democrat Entrepreneurs Network event on Tuesday night.

Susan Kramer, Liberal Democrat Business spokesperson, said:

“Entrepreneurs are the lifeblood of a thriving economy but I know from
my own time in business, the early months can be really tough. This will
really help get small businesses off the ground and let the economy
grow. It takes courage to set up a business, and we are on the side of
entrepreneurs."

Tim Farron said:

“While the Conservatives focus on giving tax cuts to giant corporations,
our focus is on small businesses seeking to grow. And unlike Labour and
the Conservatives, we would s…

In the 2015 General Election the Labour Candidate criticised John Hemming for having an external interest and made a pledge that she would be a "Full Time MP for Yardley and my only other job will be mom & carer ...". Here is a copy of that pledge:

Since that point she has been working on paid Television Programmes and has also written a book. John Hemming has made no secret of the fact that he chairs the board of the company he founded in 1983. This involves one meeting a month. When he was the MP for Yardley he was a full time MP and the Job of being MP for Yardley came first. The Labour candidate has reported 1,274 hours of work other than being an MP in the two years she has been elected and her income in the last year was over £131,000.

Ignoring the question as to how she reconciles that with her "pledge" the question is raised as to what extent her external activity conflicts with the role of Member of Parliament for Yardley. She is supposed to de…

The Liberal
Democrats have announced plans to address the housing shortage in
Birmingham and build more affordable homes.

There are
currently 15,110 families in Birmingham on a waiting list for council
homes, down from 16,130 last year.

In addition, official
figures show 4,397 homes in Birmingham have been empty for over six
months.

The Liberal Democrats would introduce a legal
requirement for smaller housing developments to include affordable
homes, make it easier for local authorities and housing associations
to borrow money and set up a new government-backed Housing and
Infrastructure Development Bank.

The party would allow local
authorities to hike up council tax on empty homes by up to 200%,
including second homes. Local authorities could also choose to
impose penalties on developers who leave plots of land empty for
over 3 years, to tackle so-called land-banking.

John
Hemming commented:

“Hundreds of families in Birmingham are
struggling to find a decent and affordable place to call ho…

On
the same day that the Liberal Democrats have announced a manifesto
commitment to the NATO 2% defence spending target, former party Leader
Paddy Ashdown has launched a petition to stop further cuts to the Royal
Marines in which he served. Lib Dem leader Tim Farron said, ‘In
an uncertain and volatile world, it’s our Armed Forces that keep us
safe and allow us to play our part in creating a more stable
international community. “Our
service personnel are the best in the world. And it’s right that we
reward them fairly and make sure that they have the right equipment to
do the job. “So today, our party is proud to commit to NATO’s defence spending target. For
all their rhetoric, the crisis in recruitment and their botched defence
review show that the Conservatives have let our Armed Forces down. “The
Liberal Democrats are the only party that can challenge the
Conservatives and stand up for strong Armed Forces, fit for the 21st
century.” Former Royal Marine and Lib Dem peer Pa…

The number of people waiting longer than they should for hospital care have hit a five-year high in England, figures show. NHS England data for 2016-17 reveals 2.5 million patients waited over four hours in A&E - up from 725,000 in 2011-12.Those waiting over 62 days for cancer treatment topped 26,000 - nearly double the total five years ago.Meanwhile, over 360,000 people have now waited over 18 weeks for an operation, compared to 160,000 five years ago.Commenting, Liberal Democrat Shadow Health Secretary Norman Lamb said:

“These figures reveal the dismal human cost of the NHS crisis.

“Millions of patients are waiting in distress and anxiety.

“There is a moral obligation on the government to end this shameful
neglect and address the chronic underfunding of our health service.

“Only the Liberal Democrats have put forward a credible plan to rescue
the NHS and care by putting a penny in the pound on income tax.”

The
Liberal Democrats have today announced that £1 billion of the party's
additional health funding would be spent tackling the "historic
injustice" faced by people with mental ill health.

Last weekend, Liberal Democrat Leader Tim Farron and Shadow Health
Secretary Norman Lamb unveiled a Five Point NHS and Care Recovery Plan
to increase funding for health and social care services, including a
penny on income tax to provide a £6 billion funding boost.

Today the Liberal Democrats announced that £1 billion of this extra
money would be ring-fenced as dedicated funding for mental health
services.

This would help to deliver on 12 key priorities, including improving
waiting time standards for mental health care on the NHS and
providing support for pregnant women and young people suffering from
mental health problems.

The Liberal Democrats will also set out to end the inappropriate use of
force against people with mental ill health, end out of area placements
for m…

This is the extra funding the Liberal Democrats are committed to providing for schools in the West MidlandsLocal AuthorityPer Pupil SpendFunding FormulaPupil PremiumTOTAL ADDITIONAL FUNDINGBirmingham£29,113,122£79,674,219£16,159,684£124,947,025Coventry£27,331,190£21,114,102£3,219,599£51,664,891Dudley£25,385,634£9,337,914£2,633,430£37,356,978Herefordshire£25,170,047£3,574,375£966,476£29,710,898Sandwell£27,219,062£13,127,431£4,047,985£44,394,478Shropshire£25,184,601£5,337,029£1,524,652£32,046,282Solihull£24,102,161£4,193,380£1,756,436£30,051,977Staffordshire£24,186,742£7,575,260£5,025,346£36,787,348Stoke-on-Trent£26,259,264£1,936,277£2,884,302£31,079,843Telford and Wrekin£24,725,666£679,395£1,645,682£27,050,744

In
response to a call by the Institute of Directors for the government
to give investors a bigger say in executive pay, Sir Vince Cable,
Liberal Democrat Shadow Chancellor, said:

“Even directors think executive pay can be excessive, yet the
Conservatives still refuse to take action. When so many people are
struggling, it undermines confidence in wealth creation, which
ultimately harms everybody.

“Liberal Democrats have long campaigned for binding votes on executive pay.

“Conservative failure to take action shows that Theresa May just doesn’t
care. Even the Institute of Directors are to the left of her. Perhaps
she is simply terrified because she has so dented business confidence by
her insistence on pulling Britain out of the customs union and single
market.”

In a world which is getting more dangerous it is important to look at how conflicts can actually be resolved.

England has managed to avoid either a civil war or a revolution since 1688. That is because people have accepted the constitutional settlement and that was a popular settlement.

From time to time there have been pressures for change. Those have normally been resolved through essentially peaceful means including a referendum in Scotland and Wales. The Northern Irish Peace process was much harder to resolve because of the violent incidents that occurred.

The reason violent incidents make conflicts harder to resolve is that they change the balance of a dispute from one which is to some extent rational to one which is driven by emotions and particularly the emotion of revenge.

Violent incidents that result in the deaths of innocent people always create more anger than incidents involving combatants. This often creates a desire for revenge amongst the side of the dispute that…

It is, admittedly, unusual to have a proper Marxist as the Shadow Chancellor standing for election. However, as we now have one I think it is right to explain the basic problems with Marxism.

There are two key components of Marxist theory: Dialectical Materialism and the theory of Surplus Value.

Dialectical Materialism analyses progress into the concept of there being a Thesis, an Antithesis and consequentially a Synthesis. The idea is that the conflict between the thesis and antithesis results in the synthesis.

This is essentially an overly simplistic model of society which really does not create any intellectual value. It encourages the concept of conflict which may be emotionally attractive to some people, but in fact is not normally mass conflict that creates progress. Challenges from competition and the desire to improve things is the main driver for progress. That happens best without mass conflict.

The second part is the theory of Surplus ValueUsing the quotation from wik…

15,430 pensioners living in Yardley will receive at least an
extra £772 per year under Liberal Democrat manifesto plans to protect
the 'triple lock' for state pensions.

Thanks to the triple lock guarantee, secured by the Liberal Democrats
when they were in government, the basic state pension has risen in each
year by whichever is the higher of earnings, prices or a rate of 2.5%.
However, the Conservatives have refused to guarantee whether the triple
lock will continue, raising fears it could be scrapped.

The Liberal Democrats have committed today to keeping the triple
lock, meaning the state pension would be worth at least £137.15 a week
by 2021, up from £122.30 in 2017, or an extra £772 a year.

This would be paid for in part by restricting perks such as the winter
fuel allowance so they are no longer paid to the wealthiest pensioners.

Liberal Democrat spokesperson John Hemming said:

"Protecting the triple lock will mean an extra £772 a year by 2021 for
the 15,43…

"But the Marxism we're seeing in the Labour party right now has more in common with Groucho than Karl.

"Groucho Marx once said that politics is the art of looking for trouble,
finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong
remedies. That could easily have been written with Jeremy Corbyn's
Labour in mind.

"Labour has failed as an opposition and is now utterly unelectable.

"The only home for moderate Labour voters is the Liberal Democrats. We
are the only party that can challenge Theresa May and provide the strong
opposition Britain needs."

Pensioners
will receive at least an extra £772 per year by 2021 under Liberal
Democrat manifesto plans to protect the Triple Lock. The party are
making the commitment to older people unlike the Conservatives who have
repeatedly refused to give the guarantee.

This guarantee means the state pension is expected to be worth at least £137.15-a-week by 2021, up from £122.30 in 2017.

Thanks to the Liberal Democrats’ triple lock guarantee, the basic state
pension has risen in each year by whichever is the higher of earnings,
prices or 2.5%. The triple lock was a key demand from the Liberal
Democrats in Coalition negotiations.

Labour increased the State Pension by just 75p in 2000. Help the Aged
described the 75p increase as “just unacceptable”. Labour had 13 years
to restore the earnings link to pensions which Margaret Thatcher severed
in 1980. The Liberal Democrats restored the link to earnings within six
weeks of getting into government.

The
NHS and social care would receive an extra £6bn a year from the Liberal
Democrats, it has been announced. The new funding is the first of the
party’s election manifesto commitments and will be paid for through an
immediate 1p rise on all rates of income tax.
The
funding will be ring-fenced to be spent only on the NHS and social care
and will provide vital services with the money they desperately need
until a longer-term solution can be found.
This
is the party’s flagship spending commitment and its first major policy
announcement for the election. The Liberal Democrats manifesto will set
out a ‘five-point recovery plan’ for NHS and social care services in
their manifesto. Liberal Democrat Leader, Tim Farron, said:
"Theresa
May doesn't care about the NHS or social care. People are lying on
trolleys in hospital corridors and she has done nothing. The truth is
you can't have a strong NHS with a Hard Brexit.
"The
Liberal Democrats will rescue the NHS…